e-Article
The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
Document Type
article
Author
Bellm, Eric C; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R; Graham, Matthew J; Dekany, Richard; Smith, Roger M; Riddle, Reed; Masci, Frank J; Helou, George; Prince, Thomas A; Adams, Scott M; Barbarino, C; Barlow, Tom; Bauer, James; Beck, Ron; Belicki, Justin; Biswas, Rahul; Blagorodnova, Nadejda; Bodewits, Dennis; Bolin, Bryce; Brinnel, Valery; Brooke, Tim; Bue, Brian; Bulla, Mattia; Burruss, Rick; Cenko, S Bradley; Chang, Chan-Kao; Connolly, Andrew; Coughlin, Michael; Cromer, John; Cunningham, Virginia; De, Kishalay; Delacroix, Alex; Desai, Vandana; Duev, Dmitry A; Eadie, Gwendolyn; Farnham, Tony L; Feeney, Michael; Feindt, Ulrich; Flynn, David; Franckowiak, Anna; Frederick, S; Fremling, C; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Gezari, Suvi; Giomi, Matteo; Goldstein, Daniel A; Golkhou, V Zach; Goobar, Ariel; Groom, Steven; Hacopians, Eugean; Hale, David; Henning, John; Ho, Anna YQ; Hover, David; Howell, Justin; Hung, Tiara; Huppenkothen, Daniela; Imel, David; Ip, Wing-Huen; Ivezić, Željko; Jackson, Edward; Jones, Lynne; Juric, Mario; Kasliwal, Mansi M; Kaspi, S; Kaye, Stephen; Kelley, Michael SP; Kowalski, Marek; Kramer, Emily; Kupfer, Thomas; Landry, Walter; Laher, Russ R; Lee, Chien-De; Lin, Hsing Wen; Lin, Zhong-Yi; Lunnan, Ragnhild; Mahabal, Ashish; Mao, Peter; Miller, Adam A; Monkewitz, Serge; Murphy, Patrick; Ngeow, Chow-Choong; Nordin, Jakob; Nugent, Peter; Ofek, Eran; Patterson, Maria T; Penprase, Bryan; Porter, Michael; Rauch, Ludwig; Rebbapragada, Umaa; Reiley, Dan; Rigault, Mickael; Rodriguez, Hector; van Roestel, Jan; Rusholme, Ben; van Santen, Jakob; Schulze, S; Shupe, David L; Singer, Leo P
Source
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 131(995)
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Abstract
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48 inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides a 47 deg 2 field of view and 8 s readout time, yielding more than an order of magnitude improvement in survey speed relative to its predecessor survey, the Palomar Transient Factory. We describe the design and implementation of the camera and observing system. The ZTF data system at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center provides near-real-time reduction to identify moving and varying objects. We outline the analysis pipelines, data products, and associated archive. Finally, we present on-sky performance analysis and first scientific results from commissioning and the early survey. ZTF’s public alert stream will serve as a useful precursor for that of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.